The East Area Plan is great – with one exception.

As with past area plans, we endorsed the mobility and transportation recommendations in the East Area Plan that support the creation of more people-friendly streets. We are excited to see that the plan contains measurable goals for increasing walking, biking, and transit usage. The plan outlines a bold vision for repurposing public street space and making infrastructure improvements that would make walking, biking, rolling, and riding the bus safe, convenient, and accessible to all.

People-friendly streets not only result from rethinking street design, however, but also from supportive land use and development patterns.  Higher density and mixed use development allows people to live close to their daily destinations. Building affordable housing near transit can significantly reduce transportation costs for cost-burdened households, which make up one-third of households in the East Area.

At Monday’s public hearing, Council will consider an amendment to the plan that would make it harder to create inclusive, sustainable neighborhoods by recommending that “single unit areas should remain primarily single unit.” Limiting density near transit, employment centers, and neighborhood-serving businesses means limiting the number of people who can access these services on a regular basis. Reinforcing single family units as the majority of our land use also works against the plan’s goals of reducing existing residents’ vulnerability to displacement, supporting community-serving retail, and expanding job opportunities within the East area. At a time when expanding affordable housing and access to transit are critical to addressing long-standing racial and social inequities within these neighborhoods, restricting land use to single-unit could result in smaller, more affordable homes being replaced with larger, more expensive homes, driving up housing costs even further.

If you live or work in the East Area, we encourage you to provide comments at the public hearing in support of the plan without the proposed amendment. For more information on how to sign up to comment, visit the East Area Plan webpage below.